This article examines thought about and responses to epidemics in the Middle East before the 19th century. Its focus is mostly on approaches to plagues, the responses of state officials to them, and people's reactions in the Ottoman period (16th–18th centuries), with some attention given to the early Islamic and Mamluk periods. Among issues explored are distribution of grain, price control measures, tax adjustments, and an array of other actions taken mostly locally, including quarantine. The latter referred primarily to the question of flight: whether it was permissible to leave a plague‐ridden area, and how many people actually took such action. As I show here, flight was a common response despite prohibitions on the practice appearing in the Islamic plague literature.

中文翻译：

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中东近现代社会的流行病与思想

本文探讨了19世纪之前中东流行病的思想和对策。它的重点主要放在解决鼠疫的方法，国家官员对鼠疫的反应以及人们在奥斯曼帝国时期（16至18世纪）的反应，对伊斯兰的早期和马穆鲁克时期给予了一定的关注。探索的问题包括谷物的分配，价格控制措施，税收调整以及主要在当地采取的一系列其他行动，包括检疫。后者主要是指逃跑的问题：是否可以离开瘟疫缠身的地区，以及实际上有多少人采取了这种行动。如我在这里所示，尽管伊斯兰鼠疫文学中禁止这种行为，但逃避是一种普遍的反应。